WORLD - The African Mirror

Jul

31

2021

Rights groups, family sound alarm over prominent Bahraini hunger striker

WORLD

LISA BARRINGTON A prominent imprisoned Bahraini opposition figure has lost 10 kg during the first three weeks of a hunger strike, a family member has said, as rights groups called for his release and the return of a confiscated manuscript he had written. Abduljalil al-Singace was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011 alongside a number of other Shi'ite Muslim activists and opposition leaders for their roles in an uprising in the Gulf island state ruled by a U.S.-backed, Sunni Muslim monarchy. Singace, who also staged a 10-month hunger strike in 2015-2016, has refused food since July 8, demanding better treatment…

Jul

31

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. cities try to head off eviction wave as federal ban expires

WORLD

DAVID SHERFINSKI REBECCA, a 54-year-old retired nurse from Clearwater, Florida, said she was pressured to sign papers confirming she would pay extra rent - which she could not afford - to stay in her home after her landlord filed for an eviction in March. She had left her part-time tourism job after facing harassment from customers upset over COVID-19 precautions and had fallen behind on her $1,200 monthly rent and utility bills to owe $9,200. With the help of the Community Law Program, a local nonprofit, she eventually received rental assistance with federal coronavirus relief money, clearing her ledger and…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

‘I just ask God to help me’: Texas funeral home crushed by death as U.S. COVID toll nears 500,000

WORLD

CALLAGHAN O’HARE and MARIA CASPANI SUNDAY is traditionally a quiet day for Chuck Pryor's Houston funeral home, but on this Sunday in February, almost a year after the global pandemic reached Texas, the phone was still ringing. Pryor took the call: COVID-19 had taken yet another American life -- pushing the nation's death toll closer to the half-million mark -- and another grieving family required the services of the exhausted funeral director and his staff. "It's just mentally taxing," Pryor, 59, who runs a small funeral home business with his wife Almika, told Reuters earlier this month. The sheer number…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Japan, US, India, Australia call for return of democracy in Myanmar

WORLD

JAPANESE Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said he had agreed with his U.S., Indian and Australian counterparts that democracy must be restored quickly in Myanmar. Myanmar's military has arrested civilian leaders, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and announced a year-long state of emergency, alleging that November's election was beset by fraud. The electoral commission dismissed the army's complaints. Motegi made his comment after a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne -- countries in the so-called "Quad" framework. In October, Japan hosted an in-person meeting of…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Facebook ‘unfriends’ Australia: global uproar as news pages go dark

WORLD

BYRON KAYE FACEBOOK faced a worldwide backlash from publishers and politicians yesterday after blocking news feeds in Australia in a surprise escalation of a dispute with the government over a law to require it to share revenue from news. Facebook wiped out pages from Australian state governments and charities as well as from domestic and international news organisations, three days before the launch of a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme. Though the measure was limited to Australia, denunciations came from far afield, with politicians elsewhere describing it as an attempt to put pressure on governments that are considering similar measures around…

Jul

30

2021

By The African Mirror

In Haiti, COVID pandemic rages amid political crisis

WORLD

DAVID ALIRE GARCIA LAYING on her side in a sleeveless peach-coloured dress, an elderly patient groaned as she gasped for air in one of the Haitian capital's few medical units equipped to care for those hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The 81-year-old wore a clear plastic mask on her face attached to a metal tank providing 21 liters of oxygen per minute, the maximum reserved for the most serious COVID-19 cases at St. Luke's Hospital on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. "Each breath she takes, every respiratory movement, is very painful," said Dr Nathalie Colas, the hospital's medical director, on…

Feb

18

2021

By The African Mirror

Myanmar coup protesters mass to reject army claim of support

WORLD

HUNDREDS of thousands of people marched in Myanmar yesterday, rejecting the army's assertion that the public supported its overthrow of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and vowing they would not be cowed in their bid to end military rule. Opponents of the Feb. 1 military coup are deeply sceptical of junta assurances, given at a news conference on Tuesday, that there would be a fair election and that it would hand over power, even as police filed an additional charge against Suu Kyi. "We love democracy and hate the junta," Sithu Maung, an elected member of Suu Kyi's National…

Jul

30

2021

By The African Mirror

EXCLUSIVE-Investigative media outlet fleeing Russia to escape the crackdown, editor says

WORLD

MARIA TSVETKOVA ROMAN Badanin, chief editor of investigative news outlet Proekt, has left Russia with no plans to return and is evacuating his staff to avoid possible prosecution after Proekt was outlawed in a media crackdown, he told Reuters. Proekt has published a series of deeply researched and unflattering investigations into Russia's ruling elite. Russian authorities declared it an "undesirable" organisation on national security grounds on July 15, effectively banning it. The move was part of a widening crackdown ahead of September's parliamentary election that has targeted media regarded by authorities as hostile and foreign-backed. Badanin, in an interview in…

Feb

18

2021

By The African Mirror

Missing Princess Latifa: Britain wants proof of life

WORLD

BRITAIN says it would like to see proof that Sheikha Latifa, one of the ruler of Dubai's daughters, is still alive after the BBC published a "deeply troubling" video saying she was being held against her will in a barricaded villa. Asked if he would support seeing some kind of proof from the United Arab Emirates that Sheikha Latifa was alive, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News television: "Given what we've just seen, I think people would just at a human level want to see that she's alive and well, of course, I think that's a natural instinct…

Jul

30

2021

By The African Mirror

FIFA loses court bid to revive probe of Blatter over media rights deal

WORLD

A Swiss court has rejected world soccer body FIFA's bid to revive a criminal probe against its former president, Sepp Blatter, over a 2005 deal with the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) to sell World Cup broadcasting rights. The Swiss Office of the Attorney General (OAG) last year dropped the investigation, one of two it was conducting against the 85-year-old Blatter, who was banned from the sport for years for ethics violations. FIFA sought to reverse the OAG's decision, but the Federal Criminal Court rejected its request in a verdict that said the OAG had acted properly. Blatter, who led FIFA…